Nelie, thank you for those links! I've got "pepperoni" on the steamer right now (It's a hit with my daughter) and will probably use the ones from you this weekend. Her carnivore friend is visiting us for the weekend and happily eats whatever I cook so I like to throw out new things each visit.

It's nice to have the video on those links so I know I'm doing it right :)

You know what's really good? Tofurkey italian sausage. I still use it when i make pasta. It's very tasty and is mixed with tomatoes and garlic. It's pricey but worth it.

I've tried that one and I do like it better than the Boca sausages. They are good but yes, pricey. I realized I was spending as much on the faux meats as the real ones. I'm hoping to cut the grocery bill down as one of the perks with the dietary change.

I was actually surprised at how easy and quick it is to make my own sausages. This actually tastes better to me than the pre-made ones! Took about 2 minutes to mix everything together into seitan, roll it in foil and plunk it in the steamer. 45 minutes in the steamer and then it was ready to eat. I took the dog for a run and dinner was done.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17...e/P8190240.jpg

I'm so stuffed... and I can't believe how awesome that recipe is!

My favorite are the lightlife ones although I will say that making your own is pretty quick and fairly cheap! The Everydaydish.tv italian sausages are really yummy and very easy.

I can't believe how easy making seitan is! The only complicated thing for me was finding vital wheat gluten. I searched 3 grocery stores including Whole Foods and couldn't find it. I finally ordered it through a seller on amazon. I got 3.5 lbs for $13 including shipping. 3.5 lbs will make A LOT of meals for us so it really is cheap.

It really fills you up too. That was only a 6 inch pizza and I was stuffed after one slice of it. Of course I had nibbled on the pepperoni a little before making it too ;)

nelie, that's been a question on my mind for awhile "what happens to all the meat that doesn't get bought?" When walking past the meat in the grocery stores I always think it looks so gross, seeing the legs of lambs and other bits and parts of animals, and I think "wow, that's alot, and then there has to be more in each grocery store that's around in this area"...and then I think it's sad, how much of it really gets bought by it's expiration date? Animals just live a horrible life, get killed and die and most not even eaten, just thrown away. Maybe I'm over thinking...

Grocery stores usually put it on sale and it gets bought up pretty good.

But it's like other expired food... I think they just throw it away. Which is bad. That's something I'm really trying to avoid, throwing away food.

btw, lizababe, that pizza looks delicious. too bad i'm on an anti-pizza mission or i'd totally eat that :-(

Anti-pizza mission is a good thing. Those are actually very small pizzas and I made it with a whole wheat crust but still. If I have one slice of regular pizza, I see 5 lbs on the scale the next day. I retain water like a sham wow.

Ditto to everything you just said. I hate it!

I can't find the article but I was reading something from the LA times talking about how many tons of meat gets burned every day because it isn't used. It is quite astonishing.

As for pizza, I love pizza but I generally like cheeseless pizzas. There is a good cheese substitute on the market but I rather just go without. Less calories, more flavor.

I know this is an old thread, but I just watched "Food, Inc." last night, and one of the astonishing facts presented in it is that 1 hamburger patty may contain meat from up to 400 cows. Wow.

Also, if anyone hasn't seen it, it's an amazing movie that reveals what a heavily monopolized (and weakly overseen) market the US has for food production.